by ID Johnson
“I know, but if I tell Meagan, he’ll find out anyway.”
“Then don’t tell her.”
“I promised.”
A very long pause, crossed arms, and then a reply of, “Fine.”
Cadence surveyed the room and saw that there wasn’t really anyone close enough to hear. She considered using the IAC but didn’t think it was necessary. “All right. There is a highly dangerous portal that can open only during the blue moon. I used it to bring Elliott back. That’s where I was. But you cannot tell anyone,” she emphasized this by pointing at each of the gasping friends who were just hearing for the first time, particularly at Shane. “And no we cannot ever use it again. I may have unleashed the Apocalypse upon the world.”
“Oh, wow,” Aurora mumbled, placing both of her hands on her hips. Meagan and Shane looked equally surprised, but Hannah must have already known because she was only nodding along.
Aaron’s cell phone rang and he excused himself to answer it as Cadence continued to survey the reactions of her friends.
“Well, thank you for telling us,” Meagan finally replied.
“I guess Ashley was right,” Shane said, his arms still crossed. Cadence wanted to punch him in the face but kept her hands at her sides instead, her hands now fisted.
“I don’t think Ashley suspected that,” Hannah offered.
Cadence didn’t get a chance to speculate before Aaron was back beside them. “Guys, can we move this conversation to the conference room. We have a problem.”
“What’s up?” Cadence asked for everyone.
“That was Det. Abby Watson in Philadelphia. We’ve got a body.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“All right, I’ve got pants on. This better be good,” Elliott said as he folded his large frame into the seat next to Cadence around the conference room table. She couldn’t help but think how extremely normal it was for him to be sitting in the same chair he’d always sat in before, like nothing had ever changed.
He’d had the opportunity to say hello to each of them earlier in the day, before the meeting, since these were the Guardians and Hunters he’d also worked most closely with right before he died. All of them were at Sierraville except for Shane. Meagan had been particularly emotional since Elliott had been shot trying to save her.
“You’ve got orange fingernails,” Aurora pointed out from her seat across from him.
As if to mock her, Elliott stuck each finger in his mouth and used his teeth to dig out the remains of the Cheetos. “Better?” he asked when he was finished.
She laughed. “It’s nice to have you back.”
“All right, if we’re all done with our… snacks, let’s get right into it,” Aaron said, shaking his head at his friend as if to say, “some things never change.”
“Did you say that was Det. Watson?” Jamie asked from his seat right across from Cadence.
“Yes, and I’m more than a little shocked to hear what she had to say,” the leader confirmed.
“What’s going on? Haven’t you been getting regular updates from Andrew, the Philadelphia Area Leader?” Christian asked. He was from Philadelphia originally, so he was invested in the safety of the current residents.
Aaron nodded. “However, I guess I must have somehow been asking the wrong questions.”
“What do you mean?” Cadence asked, her knee bumping into his beneath the table as she leaned forward.
With a sigh, Aaron elaborated. “I’ve been asking Andrew for updates on bodies for months. Occasionally, something would show up that seemed like it might be Gibbon related, but there was never any trail, nothing for us to follow or track him with.”
“And now there is?” Hannah asked from her position at the other end of the table.
“No,” Aaron replied, confusing them all. “But it turns out that Andrew wasn’t telling me there’ve been a staggering number of missing person reports in the last three months.”
The members looked around the table at each other for a moment, before Elliott asked, “Staggering as in a few, or staggering as in my drunk uncle trying to exit granny’s house after Thanksgiving dinner?”
Cadence covered an inappropriate laugh with a fake cough, but Brandon, who was sitting next to his father couldn’t hold it in, and soon there were snickers all around. “All right, let’s try to keep this serious,” Aaron said, though he was also smiling. “Like ten, possibly twelve.”
“That is a lot,” Meagan agreed, looking at Shane who nodded at her.
“Why possibly?” Brandon asked, leaning forward.
“Because two of the missing people are Japanese tourists who may or may not have actually disappeared in Philly. They were touring several US cities, and their family stopped receiving messages from them somewhere between NYC and Philadelphia.”
“Didn’t you say we had a body?” Jamie asked, confusion written all over his face.
“Yes. Det. Watson said that the body of one of the missing people was discovered in a ditch a few hours ago, and while, to her best determination, the death did not appear to be Vampire related, the fact that they had a potential murder victim’s body in an unexplained location—and all of these other missing persons—made her decide it was time to check in with me,” Aaron explained.
“She was wondering what the hell we were doing?” Christian clarified.
“Precisely,” the Guardian Leader nodded.
“Stupid Andrew,” Aurora mumbled.
“Who is Det. Watson?” Elliott asked, trying to catch up to speed.
“She’s one of the detectives who originally took Steven Gibbon into custody when he was the Jogging Path Slayer,” Cadence explained. “Her partner was killed by Giovani, but not before he helped me destroy Zabrina. She saw the Vampires take Gibbon from the hospital.”
“She also saw her sister murdered by a Vampire when she was younger,” Aaron offered.
Elliott nodded. “So Philly’s dropped the ball. What do we do?”
“And who are our other missing persons?” Hannah asked.
“Both good questions,” Aaron said. “First of all, we’ve got four missing teenagers, a local historian, a university professor and his wife, two elderly gentlemen who never checked in at the shelter they always stay in during the winter months, and an elementary school teacher.” With each description, Aaron showed them pictures he’d had emailed to him earlier from Watson on the large projection board hanging near them on the wall.
“Anything linking them?” Cadence asked.
“Not that we know of.”
“And where did they go missing?” Christian asked.
“Again, with most of them it’s hard to say for sure,” Aaron replied with a sigh. “Some of them were traveling alone in the city on the day they disappeared and failed to check in or return. The only one we know for sure is Ms. Marley Riggins, who was on a field trip with her class. Several classes visited three locations that day, and it wasn’t until they returned to the school that the other teachers realized she wasn’t on any of the buses with them. So that narrows it down a little bit.”
As Aaron explained, Cassidy requested a conversation with Cadence. Though she hated to ignore her sister, she decided she would talk to her later. She needed to focus on this meeting right now. “Where did they go?”
“Their first stop was a park not far from the school. Then, they visited a local bakery, followed by a museum. No one knows for sure when she was last seen, but one of the other teachers insists she was with them when they arrived at the museum,” Aaron explained.
“What museum?” Christian asked.
“I don’t have that information, but we can get it,” Aaron replied.
“Cadence,” Brandon said, reaching around Elliott and putting his hand on her shoulder. “I hate to interrupt, but Cass says she’s trying to get ahold of you and it’s important.”
While Cadence wanted to ask him why he was on the IAC during the meeting, she held her tongue. “Okay,” she said as she allowed
her sister to message her. The conversation continued around her, and though she could hear that they were speculating about where everyone else disappeared, and Aaron pulled out his phone, she couldn’t focus on both conversations at once. “Cass? What’s up? We’re in a meeting.”
“I know. Sorry,” she said. “I wish I was there.”
“Me, too. Is it important?” She was trying to hurry her sister up, hoping that this wouldn’t turn into a pity party of “why can’t I be there?”.
“Yeah, so I was doing my best to try and listen in on the Vampires today. During history class. And I thought, maybe I should try seeing how far away this stuff works, right? So I really honed in on Philadelphia. It took a lot of concentration, but eventually, I was able to pick up chatter that seemed to be Philly related—like the Eagles, the Liberty Bell, whatever. Well, then I did something I’d never done before, and I sent a question out to the other Vampires.”
“That’s daring,” Cadence admitted. “What did you ask?”
“I asked if they had any idea where the Jogging Path Slayer, or Gibbon, was.”
She paused, and Cadence found herself hurrying her along again. “And?”
“And, well, at first, I didn’t think anyone was going to answer, like they knew I was a spy or something. But just as I was about to give up, I got one really clear, one-word answer. And I don’t know if it has anything to do with anything or what, but I thought you should know.”
Cadence sighed, assuming this entire conversation was a waste of time. “Okay. What was it?”
“Klondike,” Cassidy replied.
Cadence knew she was making a face that the rest of her team would find alarming. She was both confused and annoyed at this point. “Klondike? Like the ice cream? Or the really cold place in Alaska?”
“The Klondike is in Canada, Cadence,” Cassidy said, in a tone that insinuated she believed her sister to be an idiot, “and I don’t know. That’s all I got.”
Ignoring her sister’s attitude, Cadence said, “Okay. Well, then, thank you. I will pass this information along to the rest of the team.”
“You’d better,” Cassidy threatened. “Brandon will tell me if you don’t.”
“I will,” Cadence assured her, “not that I’m scared of you. Or Brandon.”
“Well, maybe you should be….”
“All right, sassy pants. Thank you. Talk to you soon.” Cadence disconnected her and tried to tune herself back into the conversation. “I’m sorry. What did I miss?”
“Not much,” Aaron said with a shrug. “I sent Watson a text to see if she could tell me what the museum was, but she said the reports she’s received aren’t very specific since this is out of her jurisdiction, but she’ll try to get that information to me.”
“And we looked at a map showing where the shelter is located that the men didn’t show up to, where the professor works, though he and his wife disappeared on a Saturday, and the historian’s home,” Christian added.
Cadence looked up at the map. The points were all fairly close together but still encompassed a wide metropolitan area. “What about the kids?”
“We don’t have any idea where they were headed the night they disappeared,” Aaron said, shaking his head. “They all lived in this area.” He used a laser pointer to highlight the neighborhood, which was clear on the other side of town from the rest of the red dots. “But they could’ve been at a party or another event anywhere in town.”
“None of their parents knew where they were headed?” Elliott asked.
“No,” Aaron replied. “They all said they were spending the night at one of the other friends’ houses.”
Cadence knew that scheme. “So… we just go up to Philly and see what information Watson has without knowing exactly where we are headed?”
“I guess that’s our best option,” Aaron nodded. “What did your sister have to say?”
“Yes, Cadence. What did your sister have to say?” Brandon asked, and if Elliott hadn’t been sitting between them, she would’ve smacked him.
“She said she did her best to contact some Vampires in Philly, but she didn’t know if she was able to get anything important back from them,” she began.
“Did she get anything at all?” Elliott asked.
“Only one word, and I have no idea how it could possibly be helpful.”
“Well, let’s hear it,” Christian insisted. “You never know. I’m pretty familiar with the area.”
“Unless you’re also secretly Canadian or heir to an ice cream fortune, I don’t think it will matter,” she muttered. “But I don’t mind telling you. She said, ‘Klondike,’ whatever that means….”
Before she even finished her sentence, Christian and Aaron both said, “I know where he is!” and then stared at each other for a second, as if they were waiting for someone to declare a winner.
“I beat you! Damn it, I beat you this time!” Christian insisted.
Aaron waved him off. “It doesn’t matter. We need to get to Philadelphia now. This could be bad. Really bad.”
“Absolutely,” Christian agreed.
The rest of the team alternated looking from one of them to the other as if they were watching a tennis match. “What the hell are you talking about?” Elliott finally asked for all of them.
Before Aaron could answer, his phone dinged, and he read the reply from Watson. “Eastern State Penitentiary.”
Christian nodded. “Yes, that has to be where Ms. Riggins disappeared.”
“What does that have to do with ice cream?” Meagan asked, clearly confused.
“Nothing. Not that Klondike,” Christian explained. “Klondike was another name for the cell where inmates served time in isolation. It was also known as The Hole.”
“So you think Gibbon is hiding in a prison? Wouldn’t that be the last place he’d want to go?” Aurora asked.
“It’s not a prison anymore,” Aaron replied. “It’s a museum. The prison closed in the 1970s, and the buildings all fell into disrepair. Recently, there’s been a large movement to try and save the buildings, and now it’s a museum.”
“And one hell of a haunted house at Halloween,” Christian added.
“Great. We get to run around chasing a Vampire through a dilapidated prison, dressed up to look like a haunted house. Count me in,” Meagan said sarcastically, her arms crossed against her chest.
“It’s only dressed as a haunted house at Halloween,” Christian clarified.
“Oh, good,” Meagan sighed.
“But it’s one of the most haunted places in the world,” he continued.
“Oh, crap,” Meagan said, returning to her former disposition.
“You hunt Vampire’s for a living, Meag,” Aurora reminded her. “How can you possibly be scared of ghosts?”
“That’s different. I’m not a Ghost Hunter!”
“No, but if you were you’d have a heck of a show on A&E,” Elliott chimed in.
“I would like for all of you to accompany us on this hunt,” Aaron said, looking at his friend but ignoring his remark, “but if you honestly feel too uncomfortable, you don’t have to go.”
“No, I’ll go,” Meagan assured him. “I want to see this through.”
“This is going to take a very large team to pull off,” Aaron continued. “Eastern State is massive. We are going to need a lot of boots on the ground.”
“I’m sure we’ll have lots of volunteers. Lots of people would like to have a hand in bringing in Gibbon,” Cadence offered. She knew her sister would be one of those people, and while she didn’t want to bring it up to Aaron now, she was hopeful they could bring her along this time. She might be in a bit of danger, but she could potentially track Gibbon in a way no one ever could before. If she could pinpoint his location from Iowa to Pennsylvania, who knew what she could do when she was in the same state.
“Cadence and I will put the team together and let you know as soon as we have an ETD. I’m guessing it will be some time tomorrow morning,” Aa
ron assured all of them.
“Well, all right then,” Elliott said, slamming his hands down on the table. “Until then… I’ve got some football to watch and some Cheetos to eat.”
“God, you haven’t changed at all, have you?” Aurora asked as the team began to funnel out.
“I like to think not,” Elliott answered, following Brandon toward the door, “although I swear I am a little taller.”
“And a little more obnoxious,” Cadence yelled after him, though her smile revealed she was teasing.
“I’m not sure that’s possible,” he admitted. “I will tell you this though,” he said pausing just before the exit, “when I meet this Gibbon guy, he’s gonna wish I’d never come back from the dead.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
It had been a short argument, but Cadence had won, and when they loaded the plane to head to Philly the next morning, her sister was on it. Aaron had been a bit easier to convince than their parents, but Cassidy handled most of that, and as she sat next to Aaron toward the front of the plane, Cadence felt relieved that her sister was sitting in the back next to Brandon. At least this time there could be no surprises; Cassidy couldn’t sneak up on them if she was already with the rest of the team.
Along with the other team members who had participated in the meeting, they had also called in several others, including Rusty, Sonia, Mickey, and to Cadence’s chagrin, Ashley. While Cadence logically knew that it made sense to bring the blonde along, she was still annoyed at her presence; she knew she needed to let it go.
The Philadelphia team would also be joining them, as would some other all-stars from other areas of the country, including Cale and a few members of his team, and Morgan, who had been called in to help with Giovani in Philly before. They had thought about bringing in Stormy and Eliza, both of whom had been helpful last time, but ultimately decided against it because of personality conflicts. Aaron also felt that the new members they were bringing along would make up for anything they might lack in the missing members.
Christian had provided each of them with maps of the various buildings at the location, as well as the surrounding area. The main structure was massive, and knowing that there were thousands of places where Gibbon could hide made it extremely important to make sure that everyone was up to speed and familiar with the layout as much as possible.
